Month: September, 2010

Swimming amongst lily pads, the water a peaty black. My submerged limbs look orange. Rushes, reeds and trees crowd the edges of the water: alder, birch and oak. The run-off from yesterday’s storm cradles me coldly, so that when I churn my legs and arms to generate inner heat I still sting with chill.

Lichen blooms over a red grave stone in the abandoned kirk yard in Anworth – a location for the filming of The Wicker Man. White rings have formed: crusted lilies mottling the memory of John Blain, who died on the 17th of June, 1896. They started long before Edward Woodward came and will continue to creep outwards for a years to come. These flowers could be made up of warts on sensitive skin but they are more beautiful and slow. A century-long spring.